Greying of Milton Friedman

Greying of Milton Friedman Mahesh Bhatt IN his review of Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman book "Free to Choose" (October 30, 1982) Kaushik Basu, while criticising the authors of using 'shoddy' arguments, has himself resorted to shoddy arguments in his attempt to demolish some parts of the excellent analysis and policy recommendations emerging from this powerful and persuasive book. Looking to the development performance of many centrally planned economies, one is surprised as to how one could maintain that Friedman's views as expressed in this book are those of "a person pushed against the wall by an increasing pile of evidence which does not support his theories". If anything, the development performance of most countries that have resorted to the centrally planned systems (including our own country) provides increasing evidence in support of Friedman's theories.